In 2019, Dr. Leonard DeFilippo and Dr. Ronald Pak met in Pahrump, Nevada to discuss their shared concerns about the state of psychosocial treatment of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) in Southern Nevada. After a regional insurance carrier refused to cover talk-therapy approaches for SSDs, arguing that these conditions were “not treatable,” DeFilippo and Pak were compelled to push back against the outdated beliefs underlying that stance. Dr. DeFilippo recalled programs from his youth in New York that achieved high rates of remission for people diagnosed with schizophrenia. Those programs emphasized recovery-focused approaches rather than the symptom-management models that still dominate much of Southern Nevada. Many of the treatments integrated in vivo, therapist-assisted community-based interventions (such as behavioral experiments and social skills training) with in-office sessions that included both individual and family work. Inspired to close this gap, they developed the “Therapy in the Desert” program, a name that reflects their mission to bring sophisticated, metropolitan-level therapeutic approaches to this underserved Mojave Desert community. Much of their early work involved challenging the widespread and outdated belief that psychosis and schizophrenia cannot be treated or brought into remission. The two clinicians presented evidence-based data to multiple insurance agencies and boards, yet they were largely met with resistance from those who, in their view, dehumanized people living with psychosis by focusing primarily on medication and inpatient control rather than recovery.

Dr. DeFilippo passed away in 2024. Dr. Pak continues to advocate across Southern Nevada for updated psychosocial approaches to the treatment of psychosis and related conditions. He is frequently invited to speak on common-factor relational treatments of psychosis at master’s and doctoral programs from Los Angeles to Chicago.

As of July 2026, more than five qualitative and mixed-methods studies are underway or nearing publication at the newly formed nonprofit and assertive community treatment–style facility. Doctoral students also continue to use the psychosis recovery program as a recruitment site for their own dissertation research. The work of educating the community about more humane, recovery-oriented treatment for those living with psychosis continues.